'We have restructured the business dramatically. That will see the majority of clients leave', HSBC spokesman Medard Schoenmaeckers said.

A former HSBC banker, fired after an internal investigation last year, was convicted in January of laundering money through Swiss bank accounts for Moroccan drug smugglers, along with his brother who worked for a Geneva-based asset manager.

'We conducted a strategic review of the Mediterranean business, partly driven by internal investigations that started last year', Schoenmaeckers said. The investigation was triggered by a criminal case involving one of its bankers, he said.